Average Customer Review: ( 5 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 "Our House" belongs in your house! Jun 29, 1999
As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I really enjoyed OUR HOUSE. It's a lot of fun to relive the heartaches and thrills that make up the history of Fenway Park. This book brings that grand old place alive through the first-person stories of contributors such as President George Bush, Pulitzer-Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Updike, broadcaster Joe Castiglione, Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti, and others. They're all linked together by a lively and informed commentary by author Curt Smith. Of the three new Fenway books, I think this is the best. Shaughnessy's FENWAY has brilliant photographs, but after you've looked at them a couple of times, the book would just end up on a coffeetable. Since Smith's OUR HOUSE is primarily a collection of personal essays, there is so much to read, to return to. It's great summer reading, because you can pick it up and put it down, one memory-inspiring chapter at a time. And it also has some terrific pictures itself -- both classics from the past and color sections capturing a day in the life of today's Fenway. If only the Red Sox could be as successful as this warm, funny, and insightful book!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Very good new book on Fenway Park Jun 03, 1999
There are three new books out on Fenway Park, all timed for this year's All Star Game. Two seem primarily photo books in lush format. Curt Smith's OUR HOUSE is largely text, but with some nice photographs.FENWAY by Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld has the edge in the photography department, but FENWAY SAVED by Bill Nowlin and Mike Ross is a very close second, presenting some more unusual and artistic views of the park and better overall writing about the park. Curt Smith's text is enjoyable (and much longer than the other two books) but sometimes he seems to get too clever in his writing and he gets a little hard to follow. Obsessive fans will want them all.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Atrocious Jan 21, 2000
Although the pictures are nice, albeit way too small, the "history" is all superficial re-hash, and very little of that is about the ballpark; most is about the franchise, and all those stories have been told better by others many times before. There's also an awful lot of filler here, and Smith writes in a very annoying fashion. He used to be a speechwriter for George Bush - Nuf ced.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A beautiful tribute to Fenway Park Oct 15, 1999
The author presents a great detailed history of Fenway Park and its participants. For a Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park fan, I highly recommend this book. Curt Smith takes us back in time, and also the present. An update of this book (which will happen soon) will conclude with the Red Sox winning the World Series at Fenway, before they make their move to the new Fenway.
Our House -- an Open Invitation to Visit Aug 11, 1999
Our House: A Tribute to Fenway Park By Curt Smith Curt Smith has outdone himself yet again with his loving tribute to baseball's shrine: Fenway Park. Author-historian Smith weaves the works of other members of the Red Sox Nation: Peter Gammons, former Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti, John Updike, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and former President George Bush (among others) with his own masterful prose. In the case of Bush, it is only fair that he contribute. After all, Smith at one time wrote many of the President's speeches. The book focuses on two story lines: the history of a team that has gripped a region's soul like no other; and a ballpark that, in its dotage, has come to symbolize an age that otherwise has been lost. One could argue that hockey's Montreal Canadiens have a similar grip on the soul of Quebec. However, Canadiens' fans have not had their faith tested as severely as those of the Red Sox. Since the Red Sox last won the World Series in 1918, the Canadiens have managed to win the Stanley Cup 23 times. Would the Canadiens evoke such passion in their fans if they had not won a championship in 80 years? That is at the root of the story. Fenway is "Our House" to the Red Sox fans. It is full of love, hope and a real sense of family. Yet, it also brings back many painful memories, all going back to the "Curse of the Bambino." There were the playoff losses for the 1948 and 1978 pennants. Don't forget the more recent World Series losses of 1967, 1975 and 1986. Does this history engender an anticipation of failure? Or does the Calvinistic background of the region make the faithful expect their baseball dreams to be shattered? This classic "chicken or egg first" theme runs throughout the book. Until this decade, the thought that Fenway Park would ever be replaced was never mentioned. Now, as Smith points out so well, its demise seems inevitable, because of the success of today's "retro-parks" (such as Camden Yards and Jacobs Field). These new facilities have successfully captured the quirkiness of Fenway with the modern amenities fans demand and the revenue streams clubs say they need to remain competitive. If all of this isn't enough, the book also includes a complete bibliography and appendices, which chronicle the history of Red Sox records from the team's beginnings as the Boston Americans in 1901. You need not be a Red Sox fan to read "Our House." Any baseball fan can identify with and enjoy Curt Smith's latest book.
|
